


Dreams are Dead

by peachmuffins



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Angst, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, Disease, Gen, M/M, Minor Character Death, Virus, Zombie Apocalypse, and house of gold by top, dreamnotfound, hence the title "dreams are dead", how the hell do you use ao3 tags, i wrote this while listening to taylor swift's folklore album, slightly ooc probably
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-12 05:33:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28630329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peachmuffins/pseuds/peachmuffins
Summary: It all started with a little bit of rain. Then a lot more rain. Then even more. For two whole weeks, it rained nonstop everywhere in the world. Yes. Everywhere. When it stopped, everyone thought it was over. They couldn't have been more wrong. With the rain came a strange disease that pretty much turned people into zombies. The world is practically destroyed and the rest of Dream Team is nowhere to be found; it's just Dream. Alone... until he isn't.>> i have marked dreams are dead as mature, but only for possible triggers (which will be marked in-chapter if needed), the apocalyptic setting, strong language and violence (including infected people dying). it should, however, be suitable for most people ages 13+, as most of my writing is. <<
Relationships: Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Darryl Noveschosch & Sapnap, Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF)
Kudos: 15





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this is probably ooc for them but uhh i wrote this first chapter in late july (like, not even a week after i discovered the dt) so shhh-
> 
> not this being cross-posted on wattpad lmao anyways,, enjoy the chapter!

A soft melody, a night sky full of glittering stars (although, they were hard to see due to light pollution), a field of wet grass, and a seat rocking back and forth under a large tree. Dream couldn't help but smile at the calmness of the field away from his now torn apart city. He let the wind push the unstable swing softly as he hummed a song he didn't remember the name of. Not like it really mattered now, anyways. The world was slowly falling into ruin and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Not like he really wanted to try, at this point.

"It's so quiet now." Dream said softly to himself, subconsciously afraid that speaking would disturb the peace of the scene around him. His fears were confirmed when he glanced to his right. He could see a fire in the distance, slowly starting to consume the things surrounding it. The smoke was starting to consume the darkened sky. There were distant screams of innocent, uninfected people. How long they would stay uninfected (or alive), Dream didn't know. He dragged his heels against the dirt to stop the swing and slid off, grabbing his bag from where it leaned against the trunk of the tree. He was sure that in a few hours the tree would be gone, a pile of ash along with everything else in the city. Hell, everything else in the state too, maybe.

It all started only a few weeks ago. A few months ago? He wasn't sure anymore, to be honest. Days just blurred together for him now. He was on TeamSpeak with George, talking about their next Minecraft video, when his phone went off. He heard George's phone go off at the same time, which was odd.

 _"George?"_ Dream is never going to forget the shakiness of his best friend's voice on the other end of that call.

_"There's a worldwide flood…? How-How is that even possible?" There was a heavy silence as Dream read the alert again._

_"I don't know. It… there's no way it can be that bad, scientifically."_ He was wrong. Everywhere in the world, it rained. And rained. And didn't stop raining. Even in places that didn't get rain ever, it somehow rained. Many people drowned daily. Every night, a terrified George would text Dream to make sure he was still alive. Dream would always respond with the same stupid meme because he didn't know what was going on. They would call Sapnap and Badboyhalo every so often and check in, making sure they were okay too. After about 2 weeks, the rain died down. The world was flooded now, but things were going back to normal… slowly. But after that, of course, another issue popped up.

_"Dream, did you see the news article about the new and possibly deadly disease?" Sapnap asked bluntly after George had left the call to try and get some sleep. Dream's head snapped up, his half-written Twitter post almost instantly forgotten about._

_"The_ _ what _ _?" He tried to hide his panic, but it was hard. Another disaster only a few days after the last wasn't something that Dream exactly wanted._

_"I'll send you a few articles…"_ Dream read through all of the articles he could find, including the ones his friend sent. The disease seemed to start out by drinking large amounts of the flood water, which was a stupid thing to do but as always, someone would do it. Something about the water when it was unpurified would cause people to develop flu-like symptoms that would turn into something more… zombie-like. People infected with the disease would become violent. And not just your normal, "Oh, I fucking hate people, get away from me-" violent. No, it was much worse.

_"George, people are starting to destroy buildings and… eat other people." Dream was typing frantically as Bad explained the new information to him, anxiety creeping into his usually friendly and kind sounding voice._

_"Wh-Why?"_ Dream would be lying if he said now, looking back, that he was never worried about his friends to an unhealthy extent during those calls. He would stay up all night almost every night trying to make sure everyone he could get in contact with was alright. Researching things that just made him more paranoid, but he would never admit that part. _"What the hell is up with this disease?"_

_"No one knows anything about it." Dream leaned back in his chair, letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding._

_"Actually," He glanced over at his second monitor as he corrected Sapnap, "the symptoms seem to be aggression, the compulsive desire to eat human organs, green-ish colored pale skin, yellowing fingernails and dark red, misshapen pupils. Along with some flu symptoms, of course." A pause. "You sent me some of those articles, Sapnap. You should know some of this, at least."_

_"Shut up, Dream. Have you even slept in the past week?" Sapnap sighed. Dream knew he was trying to sound angry, but it just came out as concern._

_"Even if I wanted to, it's not like I could."_ That wasn't a complete lie. When it had started to get bad, buildings were set on fire nearly every night. You could hear constant screaming outside. You always needed to be ready to run. _"I'm just trying to stay alive." Sapnap just huffed in response._

_"We are too, but you need to get some sleep, Dream." George said._

_"What if something happens, George?" Dream snapped suddenly. "I don't want you guys dying on me."_

_"You can't help us or yourself if you don't get the proper rest, you muffinhead." Bad tried desperately to lighten the mood._

_"Sleep tonight, please. For me?" George's tone made Dream relax slightly. "We can all call as soon as you wake up, I promise." And that was it._ Dream finally agreed to sleep. Not without consequence, however. When he woke up, it was to multiple texts from the group chat.

_"I fucking_ _told you_ _!" Dream slammed his hand against the desk in anger and guilt. George shushed him._

_"Dream, you idiot. Shut up." It was only them. "Sapnap is fine. He's okay."_

_"How do you know that?"_

_"I--"_

_"The disease is spread through body fluids, George. If-If he was bit…" Dream blinked tears away. "He could have had his organs t-taken out… or…" He trailed off. There was no point in saying anything else. He was sure George got the point, and he didn't want to talk about it either. Dream almost hung up, and he would have if it weren't for the fact that he felt so alone for the past 3½ weeks. The disease paranoia was starting to get to him._

_"Bad and I are planning on going to Florida. I know it's probably an awful idea, but we need to be in the same area and we haven't been put on lockdown yet. I'm… I called to say goodbye. For now, of course. Bad already left. I just didn't want you to panic. See you soon?" It was all spit out at once after a long time of silence between the two, surprising Dream._

_"You're… what?"_

_"You heard me, Dream. I'll… I'll be there soon. I won't abandon you, I promise."_ That was the last time he heard from any of them. Things got so much worse since then. Buildings were blown up, people were eaten. Animals were mostly left alone and uninfected, thankfully. They actually seemed to thrive with the disease around. It was a silly thought, but maybe they had caused it. Dream had to leave Patches behind, but he was sure that he'd find her again one day. If he even lived to see the day when this was all over… _Is it ever going to be over? Will we ever go back to normal?_ He caught himself thinking that pretty often now. And here he was, walking away from that rickety tree swing, thinking it again. _I think this_ _is_ _our new normal_.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream finds an abandoned journal and has a funky experience with a friend.

Dream pulled his mask over his mouth and nose as he walked into town. He wasn't exactly sure where he was, but something about the atmosphere told him that he had to be careful. The sky was surprisingly blue for what was happening, birds were chirping and if he wasn't in the middle of what he assumed was the end of the world, Dream would say that it was nice. The town was mostly untouched other than a crumbling building or two (which could have just been like that before all of this started), but there were a few things that just seemed off about it.

"What do we have here?" Dream murmured to himself, kicking a dirt-covered object (he actually had almost tripped over it). He couldn't tell what it was, but he didn't really want to pick it up. "Could be a trap... but it doesn't look like any trap I've seen." He reached down and carefully picked it up, cursing at himself for not putting on a pair of gloves first. "A... leather journal?" There wasn't too much in it, really. A few doodles and journal entries that were all signed off with the name Sage. Dream didn't have much time to look through the journal, though. He heard staggering footsteps behind him, causing him to jump. After struggling to pull his bat from the side pocket, he slipped his backpack off and threw it to the side, along with the mysterious journal.

"He-elp... me..." Dream cringed as he met the infected person's eyes. They weren't completely infected yet, but you could tell that they were too far gone to be saved. "Please..." The pain in their voice was almost too much for him to deal with.

"I'm-I can't." _You can't kill them, or you can't save them?_ Dream had avoided killing whoever he could. He only killed fully infected people, and even then... it was only if he was about to be attacked. If there ever was a cure found, he didn't want to be the reason why someone who could have lived was dead... _They've been looking for so long, Clay. They won't find a cure._ He held the bat up, ready to strike the person. _Put them out of their misery?_  
Fear flashed in the infected person's eyes, but after a moment they almost seemed to accept their fate. Dream couldn't bring himself to do it, even if it was the better choice in the end. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he killed someone innocent. Dream took a few shaky steps backwards, and then turned to run. He managed to grab his bag and the journal, but he wasn't exactly the most athletic, not since high school anyways. He ran until his lungs burned, and then even farther after that.

It was a while before he found an even more abandoned looking part of town. It was getting dark again. The man took a deep breath and kicked open the jammed door to a random house. He stopped to listen. "Anyone there?" He called out. Nothing. He dropped his things next to the door after closing and blocking it off. He collapsed on the dusty couch in the living room. He wanted to explore the house. Look for food, maybe. But he needed to catch his breath first. _They looked so afraid... Should I have done it?_ Dream ignored the tears that had welled up in his eyes, trying to shake the memory from his mind. He had bigger things to worry about at the moment.

Dream took the last bite of the granola bar he found in the mostly empty pantry, unzipping his backpack. He reached in to grab a water bottle, but the journal sitting on the floor beside him caught his eye. He was so bored, and he definitely wasn't going to go anywhere in the dark.  
"I guess I could skim through it..." He wondered for a moment if it was wrong to look through someone's journal. Not like it matters. The journal smelled like old leather and lavender, which was an... _interesting_ combination, to say the least. The first page was just about the writer's day and complaining about school. Dream skipped past a few pages, taking note of the scribbled handwriting on a few pages. A very specific underlined sentence made him pause his rapid page flipping.

**_▪︎ Entry 15 ▪︎_ **  
_My dad says that the flooding is definitely over with (it has been for what, 5 days?) But now people are getting really sick. Like,_ _ really _ _sick (violent, really fatigued... almost zombie-like) and no one knows why. I asked him if he and his company could fix it like they did the flooding (mostly as a joke smh) and he got all defensive. "Oh, we didn't cause it, Sage, why should we try to fix it?" As if I'm stupid._ _ Note to self: maybe trusting scientists is bad, even if they're your father. _ _I don't even know anymore... I'm gonna drop it for now. I need to sleep. I do that a lot now._

"What...?" Dream wasn't really sure what he just read. _Is some company involved in starting the disease?_ "The kid was probably just being overdramatic." He closed his eyes for a moment after putting the journal into his bag, trying to process the (currently useless) information he was just given. He finally grabbed the water bottle he had originally wanted to get and went back to his spot on the couch. He could keep reading through the journal, but the words were starting to blur together. The handwriting didn't help that, either. Dream readjusted so he was laying down, doing his best to get comfortable on the rock of a couch that he had to sleep on. His last thought before drifting off was the hope that no one would break in through a window.

* * *

Knocking. That was what woke Dream up. It was pitch black in the room, but he could see well enough to stumble to the door and look through the peephole. He almost didn't recognize the shorter brunette.

"Clay? Come on, open the door." That snapped him out of it. He blinked a few times before rushing to open the door.

"G-George?" He croaked, his voice raspy from only getting up a few moments ago. George threw himself into the taller man's arms, almost causing both of them to fall.

"Clay, I'm so glad that I found you." _Is_ _he crying?_ _Why is he calling me Clay?_

"George, you don't know how happy I am to see you." Dream tried to think of anything to say other than his normal jokes. They wouldn't really be appropriate in this situation, would they? "You're okay, right?"

"I'm fine. I... you're okay, right? All your organs are okay?" _Weird..._

"I'm more worried about you. I've been hiding in his house all night. You were... outside..." Dream swore that he saw blood on George's arm when he tried to pull away from the hug.

"No! Haha, no... don't-don't let go of me, Clay! I-I love you."

"Woah, um... Okay..." Dream laughed, a bad feeling rising in his gut along with the blush rising to his cheeks. George would never say that to him in a situation like this. Not like that, anyways. "George, how did you even find me here?" No response. Dream pushed his friend back, feeling a sudden urge to get away from him. He could feel that something was wrong. George's skin, much to Dream's dismay, was green-ish looking. His pupils didn't look right. That's all Dream needed to see before putting two and two together. "You're... infected." George opened his mouth to reveal rows and rows of sharp teeth going all the way to the back of his mouth. His mouth seemed to grow as he lunged at Dream. "George, p-please--" A loud, scream cut through the air as George's teeth clamped around Dream's abdomen, cutting off his plea. It didn't take Dream long to realize that it was actually _his_ scream. Everything went black.

Dream shot up, gripping the front of his sweatshirt so hard that his knuckles were white. His eyes darted around the room, looking for any sign of the infected George. His hands moved to check for any injuries. He was fine. He was okay. Dream choked back a sob, trying to forget the image of infected George that was now burned into his mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what a funky nap. the biting part was based off of IT (2017) but like, when he bit georgie's arm off. whoops.  
> anyways, onto the normal end disclaimer thing,,
> 
> do not force this ship on dream or george in any way, shape or form. they have said they're fine with being shipped... but it would be nice to keep the personas and real people separated, yeah? if george and dream were to ever want fanfictions taken down, i would gladly agree to nerf this book on the spot. but as of right now, dream has said that he and the rest of the dream team (sapnap, george) are okay with fanfics being written. i'm really only writing this because dream and george's dynamic is fun to mess with and write but also because i needed angst haha.
> 
> the book takes place in a kind of unrealistic apocalyptic world, and i am aware that most things don't make much sense scientifically or anything... but that's what makes it fun! and angsty, but irrelevant.
> 
> i have sections of this book written, along with short little ideas. but full chapters aren't completely finished so updates might be a little slow. i apologize! if you want to come back later to read when it's complete, then i completely understand!
> 
> i hope you enjoy reading, as messy as this book might be! ♡


	3. Chapter 3

_"Hi Gogy… what would you do if you were ever stuck alone in the world with only Dream…?" George mumbled the donation out loud (even after it had been read by the Text-to-Speech narrator), his mouse hovering over the "Spectate World" button. Dream snorted._

_"What kind of question is that?" He asked, watching the stream on the monitor in front of him to see if George had any reaction to the question. It was an interesting one, he would admit. But it was weird._

_"I'm not actually sure." George responded after a while, now creating a new world. "It's hard to imagine yourself in that situation. I'd probably just… hang out with him? Spend whatever time we had together? He is my best friend, so it wouldn't be too bad." Dream smiled at this, unable to stop himself from blushing._

_"Aw, George!"_

_"You're still annoying." After a few seconds of delay, Dream saw George roll his eyes and exit the world. "Thank you for the donation, MochiMilkshake."_

_"You wound me." Dream turned his head to look back at his other monitor, eyes lingering on George's face for a few extra seconds. It was just long enough to catch the brunette shake his head and smile to himself._

Dream pulled himself out of the memory… and the window. His backpack was stuck. When he pulled it, it hit him in the back, making him stumble and almost fall. He could hear the desperate groaning of the horde of drowned trying to get to him. Yes, like the Minecraft mob. That's what he had decided to call them only a few moments ago when he heard the window crash and needed to curse something. And "infected people" didn't really roll off the tongue.

"This is so annoying!" Dream choked out, avoiding a rock that had been thrown at him. _Am I ever gonna be able to stop running?_ An unanswerable question. No one knew what the hell was going on in the world and even if they did, no one would get the news now anyways.

Once Dream was a fair distance away, sure that none of the drowned (it was such an odd name, but he wasn't going to go back on it now) had been able to follow him this far, he collapsed against a tree, leaning all of his weight against it. He reached up to run his hand through his hair, and that's when he noticed the large cut running through the middle of his palm. "God dammit!" He hissed. "I'm so tired of this!" Dream kicked the tree suddenly, his anger getting the best of him. _I'm so tired._ It was an almost depressing thought in the tone that it was in, but Dream just shook it away, taking a breath. He felt like he was going insane. He missed Patches, he missed going on Twitter and interacting with the fans (even if he "bullied" them, he really did care), he missed making videos, he missed the Dream Team… _George_. 

_George opened his mouth to reveal rows and rows of sharp teeth going all the way to the back of his mouth. His mouth seemed to grow as he lunged at Dream.  
_ _"George, p-please--" A loud scream cut through the air as George's teeth clamped around Dream's abdomen._

Dream's breathing hitched as he remembered the nightmare, how real it felt to him. Begging for his life as his infected best friend… _no_. Dream groaned, turning his back to the tree. He slid his back down it, pulling his knees to his chest and pushing the heels of his palms into his eyes gently.

"I wonder how he's actually doing…" Dream knew that George could probably defend himself, but a person could only do so much. _What about Sapnap and Bad?_ Sapnap was attacked right before George and Bad left to come see him. _There's no way Bad made it. Bad doesn't live_ _that_ _far, so he would probably be here by now if he wasn't stopped by something._ The thought of his friends being gone… Dream felt himself tear up. He would like it much more if they were only infected. At least then they weren't gone forever. There was still a chance for a cure to be found. _Is there?_

A long time passed. Or, maybe it wasn't that long. Dream wasn't completely sure. He eventually dragged his bag over to himself ( _When had he dropped it?_ ) and cleaned the cut on his hand, wrapping a bandage around it. The man's movements had practically become robotic now. He had shut down all of his emotions when he realized that his friends were most likely… _God, I'm a grown man and I can't even_ _think_ _it. Isn't that a bit pathetic? Gonna have to deal with it eventually._ Dream shook his head and stood up, flexing his hand to make sure it could still function. It hurt and the bandage may have been a little tight, but it would have to do.

* * *

"Woah. What a mess…" A man mumbled to himself, adjusting his glasses so they were sitting on the top of his head. He could just barely tell where he was, based on old pictures he had seen on Google Maps. Other than a few major details, nothing looked like it used to only a few weeks ago. The man's bright blue shirt stood out against the dark looking sky. He was soaked, still, and he was bleeding in a few different places. Did it bother him though? Not one bit. Not when he had made a promise that he intended to keep. "Guess I'm where I need to be..." With a surge of confidence and determination, the brunette stepped forward. _I promised that I wouldn't abandon you…_ "Time to find my best friend." _So here we go._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> not this chapter being extremely short--
> 
> did you know that this was written in september and i've been on-and-off working on chapter 4 for months? yeah. i'm struggling guys please send help :'))

**Author's Note:**

> i'd like to make a few things clear (and i'll probably have this after every chapter).
> 
> do not force this ship on dream or george in any way, shape or form. they have said they're fine with being shipped... but it would be nice to keep the personas and real people separated, yeah? if george and dream were to ever want fanfictions taken down, i would gladly agree to nerf this book on the spot. but as of right now, dream has said that he and the rest of the dream team (sapnap, george) are okay with fanfics being written. i'm really only writing this because dream and george's dynamic is fun to mess with and write but also because i needed angst haha.
> 
> the book takes place in a kind of unrealistic apocalyptic world, and i am aware that most things don't make much sense scientifically or anything... but that's what makes it fun! and angsty, but irrelevant.
> 
> i have sections of this book written, along with short little ideas. but full chapters aren't completely finished so updates might be a little slow. i apologize! if you want to come back later to read when it's complete, then i completely understand!
> 
> i hope you enjoy reading, as messy as this book might be! ♡


End file.
